Dos Chinos: Shu & Q as the Cubans called us.
Dos Wheels: our motorcycle that takes us from Abu Dhabi, to South America, to Toronto, to Sweden, and to far and beyond.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Not 19 any more...

Finally an update from me... it's been quite a while. And yes, I'm quite behind blogging about my past trips, Minsk (Belarus) in November, Kerala (India) in December and Cape Town/Garden Route (South Africa) just two weeks ago! But first, I thought I'd fill you in on a more recent event... (and seeing the result of that, I will have plenty of time to blog about my recent trips!)

So, what's up? Last Tuesday, for the first time in a long, long while, I played a game of squash. I love squash, I love running around the court trying to get every ball my opponent plays at me. I used to play quite a lot, on and off, in The Netherlands, but for the past 2, probably 3 years, I had not played. A friend of mine said he played here every now and again, and my interest was sparked! We decided to play a game.

Here's the 'result':No, didn't break my leg. Yes, that is a full leg-length cast (gips) you see on me. Quite fresh in that picture, the doctor had only put it on only 5 minutes before that.What happened? I hear you ask :)I ruptured my achilles tendon (achillesspees gescheurd, for all the Dutchies reading this :), completely, like 9cm apart. Ouch, yes, well, at least when it happened, now it's sorta ok. The doctor thinks it's serious enough to operate as soon as possible, and most likely this will be tomorrow already! (it all happened on Tuesday, so all is not as quick as I just made it look... Tuesday we went to First Aid in the hospital, had an X-ray, saw the orthopaedic surgeon. He wanted to have more info and ordered an MRI, but since that requires pre-approval from my insurance company, I had to wait until today. MRI was done, later the same day saw the surgeon again, and that's where we are now.

What then?First, surgery tomorrow, then a above-the-knee cast for 2 weeks, 2 weeks of a below-the-knee cast with my foot angled slightly more upright, 2 weeks new below-the-knee cast, again slightly more upright. Then onto a brace for 6 weeks on which I should be able to walk again. Of course, only then will physiotherapy start, so full recovery in 3+ months from now. Hello May!

Upon hearing the story from Shu, a friend of ours spoke these wise words:"Tell Q he's already had his 19th birthday."